The Naples Causeway is going through a significant makeover, scheduled to be completed in 2013. The old swing bridge that stops summer traffic so the Songo River Queen and other tall boats can pass will soon be replaced by a 12-foot high fixed span.

Since early last summer, Brad Bradstreet of Bridgton has been busy capturing the scene.

“We need to document what it looks like now, before all the construction, and then hopefully what it looks like afterwards,” Bradstreet said.

To help in this effort, members of the Naples Causeway Restoration Committee, Bradstreet and real estate agent Maggie Krainin, among others, enlisted a professional photographer from New Hampshire to put together some fancy 360-degree panorama shots, which can be viewed online at tinyurl.com/64xes48 and tinyurl.com/5udxxlr.

Depicting a beautiful summer day on the Naples Causeway, individual photos were stitched together with some expensive software to make a dramatic, interactive online experience. After a few seconds of visiting the site, the whole screen begins to pan 360 degrees. Tools allow viewers to stop and zoom in anywhere. Bradstreet and Maggie Krainin have donated the panoramas to the town.

“They’re on my personal website at this point,” said Bradstreet, an agent with Krainin Real Estate. “We’re working to hopefully get them hosted off of the town of Naples website. It’s just a technical question whether it will work.”

Bradstreet snapped many images showing what the causeway in summer 2010. He created a website, separate from the panorama pics, to store his images, which has since seen the addition of several 2006 aerial shots donated by Lakes Environmental Association.

Many are available for www.fotki.com/bridge-project. Proceeds over and above what Bradstreet must pay for the web service will be donated to the town to offset causeway restoration costs, such as benches and lighting.

Bradstreet also took shots trying to duplicate the view of historic postcards from the circa 1900 Bay of Naples Inn.

On the eastern shore of Long Lake today, near the causeway, are the Naples Condominiums, the previous site of the grand, Victorian-styled inn that was torn down in the mid-1960s. According to Bradstreet the view from the inn’s upper cupola was unobstructed and provided nice images of the causeway. However, tall pines obstruct some of the view today.

In August, Robert Fogg, owner of Q-Team Tree Service, donated a bucket truck so Bradstreet could position himself and his 15-megapixel Canon up between the trees.

“It was a lot of fun,” he recalls. “I’d never done that before.”

The view Bradstreet captured last summer was basically laid out to the 1950s when the current swing bridge went in. There was a Howard Johnson’s and a couple of gas stations on the causeway back then, and Bradstreet, 65, has memories the area from years ago.

“I can remember putting a canoe in at what today is the Causeway Marina at the bridge and paddling down towards Brandy Pond,” Bradstreet said. “There was an island just before you got into Brandy Pond. Everyone would meet at the island with their canoes. It’s not there anymore; it’s been washed out by boat wakes. The Causeway has changed over time not only as far as buildings, but physically it has changed.”

“Throughout the construction process we intend to take pictures and add them to the site,” Bradstreet said.

 

Don Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Raymond. He can be reached at: presswriter@gmail.com

 

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